Athens: Greece`s former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou will be tried by a special court for allegedly tampering with a confidential tax list in late 2010, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
Papaconstantinou, 53, was finance minister when Greece`s debt crisis erupted in 2010.
He is to be tried over the next two months for breach of trust, falsifying documents and dereliction of duty, a justice source told AFP.
Papaconstantinou, 53, is suspected of deleting the names of three of his relatives from a document listing some 2,000 Greek citizens with accounts at HSBC bank in Switzerland in order to shield them from a probe into tax evasion.
The list was originally leaked by an HSBC employee and passed to Papaconstantinou in 2010 by Christine Lagarde, then France`s Finance Minister who now heads the International Monetary Fund.
Local media have dubbed the scandal the "Lagarde list" affair.
Greek lawmakers decided in July last year that Papaconstantinou should be investigated, saying he damaged the image of the public treasury during his stint as finance minister.
The ex-minister -- who has retired from politics, helped set up the indebted country`s first austerity programme and European Union-IMF bailout plan in 2010 -- says he is being used as a scapegoat in the scandal.
